Evidence of meeting #15 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was local.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Mr. Hutten. Unfortunately, we're out of time.
Thank you, Mr. MacGregor.
That's all the time we have for this panel. I really want to thank Madame Catherine St-Georges from the Union des producteurs agricoles; Madame Catherine Lefebvre from Maraîchers L&L; and Ted Hutten from Hutten Family Farm. Thank you so much for taking part in our committee meeting today.
I believe Mr. Barlow has a motion that he would like to put on the floor.
Mr. Barlow, I'll give you the floor.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I did circulate these motions the other day, but I didn't feel we had the time on Wednesday to address them. The clerk mentioned some concerns with the wording on a couple of those motions. We worked with the clerk to improve the wording of the motions to make them more in line with what he was looking for.
I have spoken to Francis, and I believe my colleague has spoken with Mr. Perron as well. I'm sorry, Alistair, that I wasn't able to get a hold of you on Wednesday; you were locked out of your office.
Hopefully, what we're doing is okay. I have four motions here, which everyone may have them in front of them.
Mr. Chair, what would you prefer? Should I go through them one at a time?
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Everyone has a copy, but let's go through the motions one at a time so that it's clear what you want.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
Perfect.
I'll start with number one, Mr. Chair:
That, given the committee’s letter to the Standing Committee on International Trade on Tuesday, February 25, 2020, regarding its study of Bill C-4, An Act to implement the Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the United Mexican States (CUSMA), in which the committee outlined concerns about the impact on the Canadian dairy industry of implementing CUSMA before Saturday, August 1, 2020, and since it has been made public that the implementation date will now proceed on Wednesday, July 1, 2020, the Committee send for a copy of all briefing notes, memorandums, emails and documents related to the CUSMA’s implementation date and coming into force, to be provided before Wednesday, July 1, 2020, provided that the government does its assessment and vetting in gathering and releasing the documents as it would be done through the access to information process.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
You've heard the motion. Are there any questions on the motion? Is there any discussion?
Go ahead, Mr. Blois.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Kody Blois Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Just for my own understanding, obviously there are four different motions here, all of a different nature. Maybe this is a question for the clerk, but are we as a committee expected to vote in aggregate on all four of these at one time, or are we voting on them individually? What are the circumstances, before we move forward?
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Are there any other comments?
Mr. Clerk, can I just ask members if anyone is opposing the motion? Would that be good enough for the vote?
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Kody Blois Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Mr. Chair, as a point of discussion for all the members on this committee, I obviously understand the nature of what Mr. Barlow is putting forward, but I'm curious as to whether the opposition and the other members of this committee have had any conversations with the dairy industry itself to see whether the industry feels this motion is helpful to it, or whether the motion might compromise it in any way, or if this is actually in its interest. Of course, we're all members of Parliament—Liberals, Conservatives, the Bloc and the NDP—but at the end of the day we're all here to serve Canadians and try to work in the best interests of agriculture.
I'm going to put it out for discussion to see whether the opposition has had any conversations with the dairy industry on this point.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
I'll make one quick comment, and maybe Mr. Lehoux will want to comment as well.
I understand your point, Kody, but we're asking for the information that went into the decision to implement this on July 1. I think that should be public knowledge. We shouldn't be hiding.... Maybe that's not the best word. We should be transparent about how this decision was made. There were assurances, let's say, that the implementation date would be August 1. It is now July 1. That has a significant impact on the dairy industry. I don't think we should be asking for stakeholders' permission to ask for information that we think is prudent to our jobs as members of Parliament.
That would be my comment, but maybe Mr. Lehoux would have further insight.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
Richard Lehoux Conservative Beauce, QC
Yes, Mr. Chair. I want to follow up on the comments made by Mr. Blois.
I've spoken with people in the industry. They confirm that this is having an impact. Like us, they thought that the agreement would come into effect on August 1. They have many questions, because this will have a very significant impact. There's even talk of some businesses potentially closing. The difference of one month significantly affects a number of businesses with regard to processing. In turn, farmers will be affected in the coming months.
3:50 p.m.
Bloc
3:50 p.m.
Bloc
Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
You all know, and Mr. Lehoux in particular, that I too strongly argued in favour of the agreement coming into force on or after August 1. I've also been in contact with people in the industry until recently. People want to be kept informed. However, they realize that we can't change this decision. They would basically prefer that we move on to other things.
The committee must remember that a commitment was made regarding this issue and that it wasn't fulfilled. This must remain on the record. Future commitments must be fulfilled. That's why we must protect supply management, among other things, by means of a legally binding mechanism.
However, at this point, I don't think that this motion is necessary.
3:55 p.m.
NDP
Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
I just want to make a comment on that. I've also been in touch with the dairy sector about this information. I think both the international trade committee and this committee were led to believe that the government understood the significance of the dairy year starting August 1.
I believe that, as Mr. Barlow said, it's the job of the opposition. We may not be able to change the date, and it may be set in stone, as Monsieur Perron said; however, I would like to know the reasoning behind why this decision was ultimately made.
I'm looking at the wording of the motion. If this request were to go through, we would probably have several banker's boxes of documents dumped on the committee. The decision was ultimately made at quite a high level, probably assistant deputy minister or higher, and if the committee wants to look at amending it slightly, maybe that's where we can try to get the actual documentation from: ADM and up to the ministerial level.
The bureaucrats who are working with the dairy farmers right now are not the ones who made the decision. They have a great working relationship with the dairy farmers. Ultimately, what we're interested in is the why. Why was this decision made for July 1 rather than August 1? I think it's an appropriate avenue to be looking at, because I don't think to date we've really gotten a clear answer on why one date was picked over the other.
3:55 p.m.
Liberal
Kody Blois Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Mr. Chair, I'll let other members opine on this as well, but my concern is about the premise that there could be information here that is prejudicial against the dairy industry. I understand the opposition members' desire to push this to understand the implementation date, but they have the opportunity to do this in the House of Commons and in the committees that we've allowed.
From the conversations I've had, I think many in the dairy industry want to move on from this. This is something that could perhaps continue to drag on, and I think we need to look at what comes next, after this. I don't know that this motion actually does anything to benefit the dairy industry.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Richard Lehoux Conservative Beauce, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I agree, in part, with my colleague Mr. Perron's view that it's probably too late now. That's true. However, if we don't want to repeat the same mistakes and if we want to protect our producers and processors, I think that this is important to know.
Why is there an issue with releasing certain information? If certain information can't be released for ethical reasons, for example, people will set us straight in this situation. I think that we really need to shed light on this issue. I'd be disappointed if we were to let this go and say that it won't happen again and that we'll make sure that it doesn't happen again.